Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 181

Who Are You? The Unnamed Character

Recently, I read two short stories in a row where the narrators were not named.  This made me wonder about this whole unnamed narrator. It is something new?  The short answer – no.  The longer answer – no but it isn’t easy to make it work. Poking around I found the following works with unnamed […]

Carla Killough McClafferty: Buried Lives: The Enslaved People of George Washington’s Mount Vernon

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that authors have favorite authors. One of mine? Carla Killough McClafferty. I fell in love with her writing when I read The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon (Carolrhoda Books). This book tells about a project undertaken by officials at Mount Vernon.  It all started when they conducted […]

YALSA Names Five Finalists for the 2019 Excellence in Nonfiction Award

Earlier this week, the Young Adult Library Services Association, or YALSA, named five finalists for their 2019 Excellent in Nonfiction Award.  The award honors the best nonfiction books written for young adults between Nov. 1, 2017 and Oct. 31, 2018. The five finalists are: The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor by Sonia Sotomayor, Delacorte Press.  “”The memoir […]

Battling Injustice with the Persecution Flip Story: Why You Shouldn’t Try It

When I saw the post on Mythcreants, my first thought was “Perse-what-a flip story?”  What can I say?  I hadn’t had any coffee yet. Simply put, a persecution flip story flips who is persecuted and who is doing the persecuting.  What this means is that a persecuted group is now in power and those who […]

Middle Grade Magic

Well, the jokes on me.  I didn’t mean to publish this one yet. I was just going to save the URL and write the post later.  But in my mad rush to get to dinner, I published it and one of you liked it.  So, my schedule is getting a bit of an update. School […]

Reading Your Work After an Absence and Growing as a Writer

We’ve heard the advice before.  Finish something and then put it aside for a month or so.  When you come back to it, you’ll do so with fresh eyes.  You’ll be able to see what works and what needs to be adjusted.  After you’ve not looked at something for a while, you’re no longer seeing […]

Writing for the Kid You Were

Recently I saw an interview with graphic novel author/illustrator Dustin Brady.  When he was considering what to write about, he considered the kid he once was.  What was it that he loved? What excited him?  He remembered loving the tv game show Nickelodeon Arcade in which two teams competed inside a simulated video game.  That recollection […]

Getting Out of a Slump

Monday, I turned in my last rewrite for the year.  That meant that I had 28 days to finish my writing goal for the year.  I want to rough out my first cozy mystery.  Given the fact that I have yet to bump off the victim, I don’t think a full draft is in the […]

Crowd Control: Working with a Large Cast of Characters

The first piece of writing I ever sold was a fictional rebus.  There were three whole characters.  In fast most of the fiction that I’ve written has had a relatively small cast.  This cozy I’m drafting is a different situation. There is the main character.  There are her best friends, one from childhood and one […]

Pitching a Nonfiction Series: The Work Before the Pitch

When I saw that Bearport Publishing was looking for new nonfiction series, I decided to pitch something to them.  There are several things I’ve had to do before I actually start working on the pitch. Read.  It’s a good thing that I like to read because step 1 is reading a serious stack of their […]